So the nation's education secretary no doubt expected to get questions about affordability as he engaged children this afternoon at the YMCA's Child Care center on Miami University's Middletown branch campus.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan was there to promote the administration's admittedly expensive plan to provide pre-K education for every 4-year-old in the country.

It's a $75 billion effort that many critics argue the country just cannot afford.

"We want to add about a million young children," Duncan said. "In virtually about every state I go visit, there are long waiting lists, and so this is something that families need."

Middletown was one of his first stops on a multi-state tour to promote the plan.

Rev. Robert Harper of First Baptist Church in Kennedy Heights was with him Thursday, remembering an age when pre-K was strictly a time for wiffleball and climbing trees.